Helicopter to Fly over Lake Placid to Tupper Lake Trail Corridor on October 25

The New York State Department of Environmental (DEC) announced today that a low-altitude helicopter flight will take place over the recreational corridor between Lake Placid and Tupper Lake on Tuesday, October 25, in preparation for design and construction of a multi-use recreational trail.

The helicopter will videotape the corridor and its historic features as part of efforts to preserve the historic railroad prior to removing the rails and ties. Additional flights will be taken after all the leaves have fallen to survey the corridor using a light detection system known as LIDAR and to obtain aerial photogrammetry data. These flights will fly at higher altitudes.

In May 2016, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced the final plan to govern the use of the 119-mile travel corridor from Remsen to Lake Placid. The final plan, signed by DEC and the Department of Transportation (DOT), describes the means to maximize the future use and economic benefits of the corridor. The State is implementing the plan with $15 million to upgrade the rail line between Big Moose and Tupper Lake and $8 million to build a multi-use recreational trail between Tupper Lake and Lake Placid.

The plan calls for DEC to manage the design, construction, and operation of the 34-mile recreational trail. Since late summer, a stakeholder group has been working to inform the development of a conceptual design and operation plan for the trail.

The stakeholder group is comprised of elected officials or their delegated representatives from the three villages and four towns along the corridor, DEC, the Olympic Regional Development Authority, Office of General Services, Adirondack Park Agency officials, and local representatives from the biking, hiking, cross-country skiing, and snowmobiling communities.

A draft conceptual design and operation plan will be shared with the public for review and comment in the next few months. The final conceptual trail design will be used to develop a request for proposals to design and construct the trail. Rail removal and trail construction are anticipated to begin in 2017.